Our Completely Next Level Custom Glock 19 [Review]

Over the past few years, custom Glock 19 handguns have become a staple. Everyone with an Instagram account has been creating a Gucci Glock, and we wanted to know what all of the ruckus was about. How did we find out you ask? Well, we built our own custom Glock 19. The process was fun, not super expensive, and the results were outstanding.

So, let’s dive into our next level custom Glock 19. We’re going to tell you the complete who, what, when, where and why, so stay tuned. Use the table of contents below to navigate the article quickly. Hopefully we manage to answer all of your questions.

Why Build a Custom Glock 19?

Custom Glock 19 vs OEM

This is a question we were asking ourselves for a long time before we did this build. To be frank, there is nothing wrong with OEM Glock handguns. They are proven weapons through and through. Thousands of law enforcement encounters and self defense encounters have proven the reliability and truth of this fact. For some people though, you just gotta tinker and improve perfection.

At the end of the day, that’s why we decided to build our own custom Glock handgun. It wasn’t an easy process, but we learned a ton. The experience alone was valuable enough to justify the creation of our Gucci Glock. Before, I only knew the basics of Glock maintenance and care. After building one completely from scratch however, I can say that I know every single part of the Glock handgun, and that is worth the time and money spent for me.

Also, the weapon has been improved by the customization process. We’ll get into that later down in the article though. Let me be clear on one thing before we move forward. There is nothing wrong with an OEM Glock handgun. If you don’t believe me, check our review. Doing a custom build is really just for the enthusiasts who really want to make the firearm their own unique weapon.

Meet our Custom Glock 19.

Custom Glock 19

Here it is. After several weeks of picking and choosing through items, we have finally finished our custom gee-lock. For the upper-portion of our build, we’ve gone with a slide and barrel from a small manufacturing facility out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, known as Next Level Armament. Doing this removes one of the two main things I change on my OEM Glock’s right out of the box. It leaves me with the option to put a red dot sight on the weapon. It also gives me the ability to change to Night Fision sights without having to take the dust covers off of an OEM slide.

For the frame and internals, we went with a Timberwolf TWC, and all Lone Wolf internal parts. We chose to go with the same manufacturer for all internals in order to avoid having any tolerance issues between parts. When you start mixing and matching your upper and lower parts kits, there can be issues with the cycle of operations of the weapon, as the parts aren’t always manufactured to match each other. You could go with OEM Glock parts for the internals, but then it’s not a fully custom Glock is it?

Here’s our parts list. We’ve included links to each piece, as well as the overall cost.

Build List.

  • Slide: Next Level Armament Gen 3 with RMR Cut – $295.00
  • Barrel: Next Level Armament Two Tone Spiral Threaded – $150.00
  • Frame: Lone Wolf Distributors TWC Frame – $225.00
  • Frame Parts: Lone Wolf Frame Kit – $76.95
  • Slide Parts: Lone Wolf Slide Completion Kit – $76.95
  • Sights: Night Fision SOTG Accur8 Night Sights – $117.00
  • Red Dot: Holosun HS407C – $240.00
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    Total Cost: $1,1180.90, however this can be done for under $900 if you get the sights, parts kits, and the frame on sale. That’s just a matter of patience.

    Our Custom Glock’s Range Performance.

    Custom G19 Range

    I’m going to shoot you straight, the range performance was exactly what you would expect from an OEM Glock. The only real differences were found in the minor improvements that have been made by the third party companies used in the build process.

    The slide and barrel from Next Level Arms performed to perfection. Some slides out there currently have a ton of extra serrations and cuts. While those certainly look epic, they’re not always needed. The serrations at the front end of the Next Level slide are simple, and extremely effective. We didn’t encounter any malfunctions at the range, but I assume just from loading and unloading the weapon that the serrations will indeed impact malfunction recovery time.

    Our frame is a now discontinued model Timerwolf from Lone Wolf Distributions. (They’ve since made upgrades.) At first, I hated this thing. Then I changed out the backstrap and the frame simply fit my hand better than OEM Glock frame. If you have larger hands, we definitely recommend fitting your Timberwolf frame with the included backstrap, as it widens out the grip of the handgun and gives you a much better grip.

    The optic we used was the Holosun HS407C. You can find a full review of that red dot sight here.

    We loved the performance of this custom built Glock out on the range. We were also surprised to encounter no malfunctions, considering I had built the gun myself over the course of an afternoon of frustratingly watching tutorial videos from various content creators.

    Carry Comfort and Ease of Every Day Carry.

    The hardest part of carrying my Guccified Glock 19 was not posting pictures of it to Instagram every hour on the hour. Like an OEM G19, the process of carrying this thing has proven to be a wonderful experience all around. It’s not too big, it’s not too small, it is in fact just right for me. This will always boil down to finding the right holster for you, but I’ve had that situation under control for several years now.

    My biggest fear going into this was that the threaded barrel or red dot would cause some new level of discomfort. Surprisingly enough, that wasn’t the case at all. I originally bought my holster with the intention of eventually upgrading to a threaded barrel and red dot sight, and as a result suffered no new draw backs. The experience was much the same as it always has been when carrying my OEM G19 straight from Austria.

    Final Thoughts on Custom Glock 19 Handguns.

    Custom Glock 19 Thumbnail

    Honestly, I can’t say enough about how awesome this custom Glock 19 is. I did not think that it would be possible to improve on the Glock platform, but this has been a truly humbling experience. I’ve learned an infinite amount about the construction and maintenance process, and have become a better shooter as a result. Building a custom Glock might not be for everyone, but it certainly was for me.

    That’s just my opinion on the process of building a custom Glock, and my individual experience with this specific build. Let us know down in the comments if you’re considering using our build, and what your experience with custom Glocks have been like so far. We’d also love to know your build if it’s different than ours, which we assume it is. Also, if you are an OEM Glock guy, tell us what you think Glock could do to improve their base platform in the future.

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